Galeri Bosfor is hosting Betül Özkan’s first solo exhibition “In Pursuit of the String” between December 13 and January 17.
In In Pursuit of the String, Betül Özkan brings personal and collective memory into view through two ancient materials of Anatolian culture: thread and wool. Worked by the hands of women for generations, these materials have long been essential to cultural life, transforming into mattresses, quilts, pillows, carpets, kilims and various woven textiles. The artist takes this legacy as both a conceptual and formal point of departure. Carrying this tradition into her practice not only through material but also through method, she builds a new surface flow and a tactile language rooted in this inheritance.
In Pursuit of the String sheds light on the processes of unraveling and binding that Özkan follows. Just as one must undergo a phase of loosening and clarifying in order to find oneself, then gradually weave the path forward, the artist approaches the transformation of her inner world and artistic practice through these gestures. Yet this path, though seemingly solitary and personal, is in fact a collective venture, much like how a string gains strength as its fibers gather and twist together.
In her production process, Özkan begins by separating and unraveling the threads and wool, then rewinding them; turning, layering and repeating to establish a pattern. This cyclical motion becomes ritualistic, oscillating between unraveling and reweaving, while the composition takes shape throughout the process. The resulting work evokes at times a topography, at times the folds of the human body, and at times the vibration of an animal form. Through the dynamism she creates on the surface, the artist draws attention to the shell while concealing the essence beneath it.
Özkan brings together the fluidity of these ever-moving threads and fibers with the solidity of form. In doing so, the rhythmic energy of the earth’s shifting body and that of human and animal bodies simultaneously flow and become fixed within each work. Her first solo exhibition offers a compelling ground for rethinking the multilayered relationships woven between material, body, geography, memory and making within the context of contemporary art.
